As previously reported, Splendid Chaps is a year-long performance/podcast project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who hosted by comedian Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl, Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour) and writer John Richards (ABC1 sitcom Outland, Boxcutters podcast).

Described by its creators as part intellectual panel discussion, part nerdy Tonight Show, Splendid Chaps is a combination of analysis, enthusiasm and irreverence. The first episode went to number 1 on the iTunes TV & Film Podcast chart in Australia, and to number 4 in the UK.  The podcasts to the first two episodes are now available at www.splendidchaps.com or at  iTunes.

Tickets are now on sale for their March show, in which the Splendid Chaps TARDIS will be visiting Adelaide. They'll be discussing the frill-fronted velveteen Time Lord Jon Pertwee, and looking at the notion of Family in Doctor Who - why are there so few families in the early years of the show? What’s with all the distant aunts? How did it change the show when companions’ families started to appear after Rose?

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott are joined by New York Times best-selling author Sean Williams plus other guests poached from the Adelaide Fringe Festival as Splendid Chaps makes the exciting move into colour and corduroy.

Splendid Chaps: A Year Of Doctor Who: "Three/Family"
Space: The Tuxedo Cat – The Yellow Room, 199-200 North Terrace, Adelaide.
Time: Sunday, March 10; show starts 2 PM (note that as we will be recording, latecomers will not be admitted until interval).
Tickets: All tickets $15 (plus booking fee where applicable).
Bookings: trybooking.com, tickets also sold at the door (subject to availability).
Podcast: not yet available; released 23 March 2013.
Accessibility: This venue is wheelchair accessible.

The Professional Publishers Association are celebrating their centenary this year, and as part of this ten covers are to compete to become Cover of the Century, one of which is the Radio Times issue covering the week 30th April to May 6th May 2005 - otherwise known as Vote Dalek!

The magazine is up against covers from the Beano, Cosmpolitan, Empire, Harpers, MacUser, NewScientist, Time Out, Vogue and Woman's Weekly, all of which were chosen by a panel of experts as being the most iconic over the century.


Head of the PPA, Barry McIlheney said

Voting is open daily to the public via the PAA website until the 30th September, with the winning cover announced on the Association's actual centenary on 21st November.

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This isn't the first time the Radio Times cover has been up for an award - in 2008 it won the coveted title of Best Magazine Cover Of All Time in a poll that was also conducted by the PAA!

Circulation director at the time, Nicola Rowe said of its successback then:

It's the last week of principal photography for An Adventure in Space and Time, with producer Matt Strevens commenting: "So the final week begins. It's flown by. Some big, moving scenes to come and perhaps a new creature or 2.". Doctor Who wouldn't be Doctor Who without corridors, but this time of the real kind as a couple of Dalek props are left "lurking" - as Matt observed: "These Daleks do like to gossip on a Monday morning."

Meanwhile, Waris met Waris as Sacha Dhawan caught up with original director Waris Hussein; the actor intimated that his time on filming was coming to an end, saying: "What a journey through space and time..loved every minute of it.x" Additional photos of the two together can be seen courtesy of the Radio Times, published when the initial casting was announced at the end of January.


Speaking of cast, last week Reece Shearsmith got to grips with becoming the Second Doctor: "Tried the hobo costume on the other day. Oh my giddy aunt ..."


Some additional members of the production team have been confirmed, with script editor Richard Cookson telling us: "I am indeed lucky enough to be working on An Adventure in Space and Time. Thanks for the congratulations! All I can really say is that it's a huge honour to be involved in the programme and to work with such a fantastic and talented cast and crew." Other confirmations include Pippa Suren as production coordinator, Catriona Scott as production secretary, and James Metcalf as a floor runner.

Al Jazeera has bought Series 5 to 7 of Doctor Who, it was announced today.

The episodes were snapped up at the BBC Worldwide Showcase 2013 event and will be shown on the satellite TV broadcaster's pan-Arabic children's channel JCC, which launched in 2005 and is based in Qatar.

The showcase is a four-day international TV market being held at ACC Liverpool. It started yesterday and is welcoming some 700 TV buyers from around the globe.

Paola Tonella, BBC Worldwide's sales and distribution territory manager for the Middle East and Africa, said: Among the star names at yesterday's gala opening were Eve Myles and Mark Williams.

The showcase will also be hosting special events to both celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who and to spotlight the natural-history documentary series Africa.

Steve Macallister, the president and managing director of sales and distribution at BBC Worldwide, said:

Australian fans attending Whovention: Gold this weekend were fortunate enough to see a world premiere preview of the animated fourth episode of the forthcoming The Tenth Planet DVD.

To rounds of very enthusiastic applause, a warm and appreciative crowd saw clips from the animated episode, during panels hosted by Dan Hall (Pup Ltd and commissioning editor of the Doctor Who DVD range) and Austen Atkinson of Australian based animation company Planet 55 Studios. During the panels a number of animated clips were shown, including the famous William Hartnell regeneration scene (see images below) and other behind the scenes material. Video from the animated episode will be available next week on doctorwho.tv.  Fans reacted very positively to the material, as well as to queries from Dan Hall as to whether more missing episodes should be subject to similar animation in the future. Mr Hall noted however that while the existing business model for BBC Worldwide DVD releases did not currently allow more than two episodes a release to be animated that future options for allowing the release of more animated material may become more feasible at some later stage.

Also featured on the panels were Planet 55 Studios animators Colin Bennett, Josh Campbell & Chris Chapman who discussed the painstaking hours of work required to recreate the missing episode of The Tenth Planet as well as the two animated episodes from the newly restored Reign of Terror DVD. Austen Atkinson confirmed that work on the animated Tenth Planet episode was likely to be completed in the next month with the DVD release due in the second half of 2013. Dan Hall also confirmed that an announcement on whether the missing episodes of the forthcoming The Ice Warriors DVD would be similarly animated will be announced in the near future, also on doctorwho.tv.


Other highlights of Whovention: Gold (organised by the Doctor Who Club of Australia) included Louise Jameson describing her complex relationship with Tom Baker; Camille Coduri recalling her shock of first learning about Christopher Eccleston's departure as the Ninth Doctor via the media and original series composer Dudley Simpson announcing that there will be orchestral concerts of some of his Doctor Who scores in the United Kingdom in the near future. Rob Lloyd also performed his popular stage show “Who, Me” in Sydney for the first time for a one-off performance on the Saturday night.

Podcasts recorded at Whovention: Gold, including an interview with Dan Hall, are also now available at the Preachrs Podcast website or iTunes.

Raymond Cusick - the designer of the Daleks - has died at the age of 84, his family have reported.

Born in London, Cusick first planned to be a civil engineer, but then after a stint in the army he planned to instead take up teaching. Having taught art, he then took an interest in design and joined Granada Television. This then led to a move to the BBC as a staff designer, which included being assigned to the fledgling Doctor Who. Here, he was to come up with the design of the Daleks, which arguably - alongside the TARDIS interior - is one of the key elements that made Doctor Who the success it was to become.

Talking to Doctor Who Magazine about his original design, Cusick said:

However, as a staff designer he was never to receive royalties for his iconic realisation of Terry Nation's creations, and his enduring contribution took many years to be properly acknowledged.

As well as The Daleks, he would continue to work on the show during its first couple of years, designing more of the TARDIS in The Edge of Destruction, the futuristic/rugged worlds seen in The Keys of Marinus, The Sensorites, The Rescue and The Chase, the 'giant' items experienced during Planet of Giants, and even delving into history with The Romans; Cusick's last assignment was sharing the design load alongside Barry Newbery for the epic twelve-parter, The Daleks' Master Plan.

Outside of Doctor Who, he worked on a variety of BBC shows including Out of The Unknown, Dr Finlay's Casebook, The Pallisers, The Duchess of Duke Street, Rentaghost, When The Boat Comes In and Play For Today.

Upon his retirement he devoted a lot of time to his hobby, writing about the battles of the Napoleonic era. Retaining his interest over his creations, he was to be reunited with their modern equivalent during Doctor Who Confidential; he also recorded commentaries and appeared in features for the BBC DVD range.

Cusick had been suffering from a short illness. He leaves two daughters and seven grandchildren.
(Raymond P Cusick 1928 - 21 Feb 2013)

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Tributes to the designer have included: current voice of the Daleks Nicholas Briggs(Twitter): "I'm very sad indeed to learn that Ray Cusick, the brilliant designer of the Daleks, has passed away."; original voice of the Daleks David Graham(BBC): "I never met him personally, but he was responsible for one of the iconic designs of television sci-fi."; Dalek operator Barnaby Edwards(Twitter): "So sad to hear that Ray Cusick, the designer of the Daleks, has died. Without him, there'd probably be no Doctor Who."; Davros actor Terry Molloy(Twitter): "So very sad to hear of the death of Ray Cusick... The true Creator of the Daleks!"; and from An Adventure in Space and Time writer Mark Gatiss(Twitter): "Farewell to the great Ray Cusick. His passing is especially sad in this anniversary year but his creation remains immortal. Daleks forever!"

In the Media: BBC News; Radio 5 live Interview with David Graham; ITV News; Radio Times; AFP; Guardian; Mirror; Independent.

Sunday 24th February sees the broadcast of the six-part 1969 Patrick Troughton story The Seeds of Death in Australia and New Zealand. The story is the eighth instalment in the 50th Anniversary season of classic Doctor Who stories on the UKTV channel.

It is scheduled in New Zealand at 3:10pm and in Australia at 3:30pm. New Zealand has an additional screening on Monday 25th February at 3:10am.


The Seeds of Death was first broadcast in Australia in 1970. New Zealanders had to wait until 1988 to see the story when it was first screened as part of TVNZ's Doctor Who 'Silver Jubilee' celebration marking the 25th anniversary in November of that year.

UKTV is showing a story every week throughout the year in the lead-up to the anniversary in November. The Seeds of Death concludes a month of Patrick Troughton adventures.

Next week UKTV shifts its focus to Jon Pertwee's Doctor and the colour era of the programme, beginning with Spearhead from Space on 3rd March.

Up-and-coming broadcasts from both 20th and 21st Century series of Doctor Who can be found via UKTV's Doctor Who sections for Australia and New Zealand.

Another early Doctor Who regular during the William Hartnell years has now been confirmed, with actress and dancer Sophie Holt to play Jackie Lane, aka Dodo.

Graduating from the Masters Performing Arts College in 2010, she has undertaken a number of theatrical roles, including productions for M&M Theatrical Productions, and also touring in Italy in Circus for the Smile Theatre Company. Breaking into television, as well as An Adventure in Space and Time, she has just played a supporting actress in the series premiere of this year's Poirot - Elephants Can Remember.

Holt joins Jamie Glover (William Russell/Ian), Jemma Powell (Jacqueline Hill/Barbara) and Claudia Grant (Carole Ann Ford/Susan) in portraying the actors who accompanied the First Doctor on his adventures. As previously reported, Peter Purves (Steven) has indicated that he would be represented in the drama, too, and that an actress playing Maureen O'Brien (Vicki) was believed to have been spotted during filming at BBC Television Centre.

Also joining the family of supporting actors is John Foreman, who plays a "passerby/interviewee".

Filming Update:

As Friday evening arrives, producer Matt Strevens sums up: The end of week 3 filming. Only a week left. Where did it go? As Sydney Newman might say 'what a picture!'". The cast and crew have been huddled away in studio for the week, with Sacha Dhawan (Waris Hussein) summarising his wait between takes: "Dressing room boredom..."

Filming is expected to wrap next week.

One person with some free time next week will be Brian Cox (Sydney Newman); the actor is due to be a guest on Wednesday's edition of The Wright Stuff next week. The show is broadcast weekday mornings on Channel 5.

A new voice encounters the old as Nicholas Briggs confirmed last night that he had taken on the mantle of one of the original voices of the Daleks! Making the announcement on Twitter, the man who has voiced the Daleks since their return in 2005 commented: "Just did my Peter Hawkins cameo today. Beyond exciting..." He later added: "Well, you can never tell what will make the edit... But I had a costume and a wig and everything! :-)".

Speaking to Doctor Who Magazine back in 2006, the actor/voice artist/producer for Big Finish paid tribute to Hawkins: "All of us who've provided Dalek voices over the last 40 years owe him a massive debt. None of us have been as good as Peter, but he supplied our inspiration. He was truly the Emperor of the Daleks."

Filming Update:

A number of classic series moments are being "captured" for the drama. As well as filming of Daleks across Westminster Bridge from The Dalek Invasion of Earth filmed last weekend, iconic moments from the pilot episode have also been recorded as photos released but subsequently removed had revealed, including recreations of the junkyard where the TARDIS is first encountered, and the interior itself (credited to Peter Brachacki, who we reported last night as being played by David Annen).

The look and feel of the 1963 studio environment has been provided by Golden Age Television Recreations, which reported on its site: "Dr Who- An Adventure In Space And Time. GA-TV is supplying all the 1960s vintage tv studio and gallery equipment for a movie-length drama from the BBC, about the early days of the Dr Who tv programme."

Colin Baker is to star as Walter Hartright, the lead character from the new adaptation of The Woman In White, which will run at the Lichfield Garrick between 26th February and 2nd March. [Burton Mail, 19 Feb 2013]

The actor may also be about to take legal action against Buckinghamshire County Council after his daughter suffered a car accident due to a pothole. The actor said: "I'd say it was a good day because my daughter walked away, but we are very grateful for efficient seatbelts and airbags. Our insurance company is considering action against [the council] and if they don't, I will." [BBC News, 11 Feb 2013]

When talking about the return of The Walking Dead, David Morrissey compared the atmosphere on the show with his guest role in The Next Doctor: "(The Walking Dead) reminds me of Doctor Who in a way; David Tennant, when he was Doctor Who, really led from the front, he was the first man on set, the last man to leave, making sure everybody was all right, a great leader - and Andrew (Lincoln) is just the same, he's a wonderful leading actor." [This Morning, 13 Feb 2013]

Sue Perkins found herself the subject of a Twitter campaign to make her the next Doctor, after being nominated by Scifind. The comedienne/presenter told her followers that she was "Beyond flattered. SERIOUSLY.".

Burn Gorman is to appear in a new AMC drama pilot, Turn; based on the Washington Spies book by Alexander Rose, it is set in the summer of 1778 during America's fight for independence, with Gorman playing the character of British Major Hewlett. The actor also has a part as Dr. Hermann Gottlieb in the science-fiction film Pacific Rim, due out this summer. [Deadline, 15 Feb 2013]

Talking about the original plans for Torchwood: Miracle Day, Chris Chibnall said: "I did a bit of very early storylining with Russell on Miracle Day, right at the start, before they pitched it to Fox, before they pitched it to Starz. I think somewhere along the way it sort of lost a little bit of its Torchwood-ness. Whether you like or dislike Torchwood, it has an essence – of madness and cheekiness and sexiness, and fun and darkness, those sort of polar facets of what it’s about, of putting those things together – and somehow it lost a bit of that somewhere in the process. when we were first talking about it, it was something a bit bolder, a bit cheekier. it may just come back to the fact that one of the great essences of Torchwood was taking those American tropes and doing them in Wales. And in a way, that’s what made Torchwood so brilliantly odd. Once you put it in California, it becomes more like other shows." [Starburst, 12 Feb 2013]

Part-time extra and full time teacher Sean Carlson (who played a policeman in The Christmas Invasion) talks about his work on Gallifrey for Big Finish: "I've been very lucky to have been involved with the Doctor Who audio series for ten years now as the Time Lord Narvin. We record the series in a studio in West London over a period of three months and perform radio plays, as well as for CDs and downloads. They feature characters from the classic series and actresses like Lynda Bellingham and Lalla Ward." [Free Press, 14 Feb 2013]

Gregg Sulkin (Adam The Mad Woman in the Attic) has been cast as Julian in the FOX pilot for Delirium - based on Lauren Oliver’s bestselling book trilogy, the series is set in a world where love is deemed illegal and can be eradicated with a special procedure. [Deadline, 19 Feb 2013]

James Corden is hosting the 2013 Brit Awards, taking place tonight, and broadcast in ITV.

Graham Norton's Big Chat is a show taking place on BBC3 on the 7th March in aid of Comic Relief which will aim to set the Guinness World Record for "Most Questions Asked on a TV Chat Show". An array of stars will appear on the show, including Ronnie Corbett, Warwick Davis and Russell Tovey, plus a Big Chat Backstage Party hosted by Greg James. [BBC Media Centre, 20 Feb 2013]

In Memoriam:

The actress Elspet Gray (Lady Rix) has died at the age of 83. As well as appearing in Doctor Who as the High Council member Thalia in Arc of Infinity, she also played the Queen in Blackadder, Lady Collingford in Catweazle and Mrs Palmer in Solo amongst many roles on television. [Daily Record, 19 Feb 2013]